Pleasanton Weekly

University founder facing federal charges blocked from opening new campus

Susan Su set for trial on 2011 charges late this month

by Glenn Wohltmann

Even as she was facing charges for running a bogus university, Susan Xiao-Ping was working to set up another non-credited university in the same location.

Su, 43, was indicted and her college, Tri-Valley University, was shut down after a 2011 raid by agents from Immigrations, Customs and Enforcement.

Su will stand trial later this month on a 33-count federal indictment that includes money laundering, mail fraud and wire fraud as a result of the sting. Federal court documents claim Su ran an "elaborate fraud scheme" that netted millions of dollars from foreign nationals who hoped to become legal immigrants.

Those documents say that Su used profits from her scam to buy five properties, including two homes in Pleasanton raided by ICE, at 2890 Victoria Ridge Court and 1371 Germano Way.

But while she awaited trial -- and asking for donations to help her fight the federal charges against her -- Su made plans to start a new university at the same site as her previous endeavor.

A report from the state Attorney General's Office says that Su, using the name of someone else, filed paperwork in March 2012 to start Global TVU at a small office building in the 400 block of Boulder Court, the building she owns and the home of TVU.

Chang Gui Su, under penalty of perjury, filed the articles of incorporation paperwork with the state. The Attorney General's Office denied the application for a new uncredited university at the site.

Chang Gui Su also asked for and received permission on Feb. 28, 2012 from the city planning department to operate a continuing adult education program at the site for no more than 20 students, agreeing in the application to comply with all local state and federal laws. The planning department is charged with making sure the intended use complies with zoning at the site, and because that is a permitted use of the building, no CEQA review was required.

Articles of incorporation filed with the state "do not list Chang Gui Su as an owner or officer," the Attorney General's Office says in its denial. "Ms. Su is listed in the corporation's application as a member of (the) respondent's faculty."

The Attorney General's Office lists a host of reasons for denying Global TVU's application. Those include making false statements, failing to disclose that Susan Su was the actual applicant, and for acts of dishonesty, fraud or deceit.

The list of those acts, which was included as part of the denial, gives some insights into the criminal case against Susan Su.

In an interview with the Department of Homeland Security in January 2011, Su admitted, among other things, that she'd had her staff list false U.

S. addresses to help students remain in the country, that she'd had staff falsify grades and that she'd falsified transcripts, letters, attendance sheets and federal forms in order to assist individuals in obtaining visas to be in the United States.

In the matter of about 18 months, the university went from having about 11 enrollees with F1 student visas to more than 1,500; students paid $2,700 per semester to study at TVU. The closure left dozens of people, mostly from India, unsure whether they'd be allowed to stay in the country.

Federal court documents say Susan Su and her university "made millions of dollars in tuition fees" for issuing visa-related documents that allowed foreign nationals to illegally become student immigrants. ICE officials say she and TVU made more than $3.2 million in the visa fraud scheme.

In her statement to Homeland Security officials, Su admitted making "large withdrawals" from the Tri-Valley University bank account that included nearly $37,000 to buy a Mercedes-Benz, a $30,000 gift to her daughters and $75,000 as a payment to her spouse.

In a separate civil lawsuit, federal attorneys called Tri-Valley University "a sham university" aimed at helping foreigners obtain illegal student visas. The lawsuit, which is pending, seeks forfeiture of four properties in Pleasanton and a fifth in Livermore that were allegedly bought with proceeds of the fraud. The government now considers the stdents to be victims of a fraud and not perpetrators.

The application to open Global TVU was denied late last month; Susan Su is set for trial in federal court on Sept. 29. She remains free on a $300,000 bond.

Posted by Mike, a resident of Highland Oaks
on Oct 29, 2013 at 3:20 pm

This woman is a relentless reprobate.
I wonder when it started and what triggered it.

Greed is certainly an understandable motivator in the first case, but you'd think a whole bucketful of federal charges would help her to gain perspective. It is difficult to imagine what she was thinking the second time around.

Mike

Posted by Busting Rocks, a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Oct 30, 2013 at 9:19 am

This is classic example of the problems created by it taking forever to bring people to trail. This woman should be busting rocks right now (don't we wish that was actually something done in our country club prisons) rather than still on the loose committing more crimes.

Posted by Right, a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Oct 30, 2013 at 7:40 pm

..or better yet, deport her (Word removed by Pleasanton Weekly Online staff) back to china and let them sort it out. She's burned all her bridges with immigrants trying to find a back door to snak into this country. Maybe let these folks know where she lands and let them settle the matter.
But, more importantly, get her out of our country and save us the court costs of convicting her.

Posted by resident, a resident of Vintage Hills Elementary School
on Oct 30, 2013 at 11:08 pm

This is blatant fraud and places a burden on our services as a community. Why can't she be deported and not allowed back into the US???

Posted by Bernadette Ferriter, a resident of another community
on Oct 31, 2013 at 9:23 am

Does not surprise me...there is/was a woman from China running several KUMON 'schools' in Daly City, San Francisco, and Daly City, who pretended not to know CA employment rules, discriminated against and discouraged African American students, and paid below standard wages in 'sweatshop' conditions...probably still there and making regular trips to China to deposit her earnings!

Posted by Busting Rocks, a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Oct 31, 2013 at 9:35 am

Virtually all the Democrat administrations (including the Obama Administration and especially the Moonbeam Brown Administration) do every thing they can to keep from deporting anybody. They actually encourage illegal immigration because the know illegals vote overwhelmingly left wing loon (loons save your howling - you know I'm right).
The Obama Administration loon Janet Napolitano, now the President of the University of California, yesterday was bragging that the University was going to provide millions in aid to illegals. This while they are raising tuition at a breakneck pace to U. S. citizens.
If you want immigration craziness to stop, you have to vote left wing loons out of office. That means getting rid of ALL the current members of Congress from the Bay Area, both of our geriatric loon U. S. Senators, a wholesale flushing of the current California Legislature, and the dos locos Moonbeam Brown and Gavin Newsom.

Posted by Sam, a resident of Oak Hill
on Oct 31, 2013 at 9:43 am

Busting Rocks wrote: "Virtually all the Democrat administrations (including the Obama Administration and especially the Moonbeam Brown Administration) do every thing they can to keep from deporting anybody."

You don't know what you're talking about. The rate of deportations under the Obama administration has been running at about 1.5x higher than the rate under the most recent Bush administration. That comes from Dept. of Homeland Security statistics.

Posted by Josey, a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Oct 31, 2013 at 10:55 am

We need to cut back on the leviathan state because it's too big; that's why I want the government to expand its deportation practices to the point that I'm even willing lie about it.

We need to stop overly zealous state regulation of private business, unless it relates to a recent Chinese immigrant's private enterprise which, truly, is not far removed at all from most other for-profit colleges and universities.

Posted by Mike, a resident of Highland Oaks
on Oct 31, 2013 at 3:18 pm

You may very well be right, but it wouldn't be of much practical value for our incumbent and aspiring politicians unless the law were changed to allow illegal immigrants to vote, would it?

Mike

Posted by Stats, a resident of Amberwood/Wood Meadows
on Nov 1, 2013 at 2:36 pm

Sam wrote:
"The rate of deportations under the Obama administration has been running at about 1.5x higher than the rate under the most recent Bush administration. That comes from Dept. of Homeland Security statistics. "

And we all know DHS statistics are always totally trustworthy. (ha ha!)

Posted by john, a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Nov 1, 2013 at 7:19 pm